The company is headquartered in a warehouse situated on 25 acres (100,000 m2) of industrial land in the Seattle, Washington suburb of Kent, where its research and development is located.
Blue Origin has also started work on developing systems for an Orbital Spacecraft. In 2010, under the Commercial Crew Development Program, NASA awarded money to Blue Origin, to develop a pusher abort escape system, as well as a composite pressure vessel. This was later revealed to be a part of a larger system, designed for a biconic capsule, that would be launched atop an Atlas V 402.[15[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-14|]]] On November 8, 2010, it was announced that Blue Origin had completed all milestones under its CCDev Space Act Agreement.[16[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-15|]]]
In April 2011, Blue Origin received a commitment from NASA for US$22,000,000 of funding under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 2 program. The NASA funds are intended to accelerate development of a manned orbital spacecraft (Space Vehicle) and launch escape technology which can be used for New Shepard and the Space Vehicle, with substantial additional development funding expected to be provided by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.The funds will also be used to accelerate the development and testing of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine for the Reusable Booster System which will be used in a later phase to launch the Space Vehicle to orbit (the first flights of the Space Vehicle will use the Atlas V rocket).[17[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-aw20110422-16|]]]
Blue origin
Set up by amazons founder Jeff Bezos
awarded 22 million by NASA (20/04/2011)
Useful Links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (07/2011)
Jump to: navigation, search
Blue Origin||||=
||
Initially focused on sub-orbital spaceflight, the company has built and flown a testbed of its New Shepard spacecraft design at their Culberson County, Texas facility. According to company statements, it initially planned on placing the New Shepard in commercial suborbital tourist service in 2010 with flights about once a week.[5[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-space1-4|]]] However, the most recently publicized timetable states that Blue Origin will fly unmanned in 2011, and manned in 2012.[6[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-5|]]]
Contents
[hide][edit] History
Since its founding, the company - the motto of which is Latin for "Step-by-Step, Ferociously" - has been notoriously tight-lipped about its plans.[5[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-space1-4|]]] Although the company was formally incorporated in 2000, its existence only became public in 2003, when Bezos started buying land in Texas and interested parties followed up on the purchases. This was a topic of some interest in local politics,[7[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-space2-6|]]] and his rapid aggregation of the lots under a variety of whimsically named shell companies was referred to as a "land grab".[8[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-wsj-7|]]]In January 2005, Bezos told the editor of the Van Horn Advocate that Blue Origin is developing a sub-orbital space vehicle that will take off and land vertically and carry three or more astronauts to the edge of space.[9[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-8|]]] The spacecraft is based on technology like that used for the McDonnell Douglas DC-X and derivative DC-XA. Bezos told Reuters in November 2004 that his company hopes to progress to orbital spaceflight. As of January 2005[update], the company's website announced that it hopes to establish an "enduring human presence in space", but the 2007 version talks instead of aiming to "patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system".
Science fiction author Neal Stephenson worked part-time at Blue Origin until November 15, 2006[10[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-9|]]] .
[edit] Headquarters
The company is headquartered in a warehouse situated on 25 acres (100,000 m2) of industrial land in the Seattle, Washington suburb of Kent, where its research and development is located.[edit] New Shepard
The company plans to build a suborbital vehicle called New Shepard. The New Shepard will be controlled entirely by on-board computers, without ground control. It will be powered by high test peroxide (HTP) and RP-1 kerosene. [11[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-10|]]]A number of test vehicles will also be built. The first example, christened the Goddard (also known as PM1), first flew on November 13, 2006. The flight was a complete success, and pictures and movies from the launch form a major part of the company's spartan Web site. However, a second test flight filed for December 2 never launched.[12[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-11|]]][13[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-12|]]] According to FAA records two further flight were performed by Goddard.
In an interview with Charlie Rose on November 19, 2007, Bezos reported that the construction of a second test vehicle was in progress and that a third development vehicle would be built after that before any commercial flights would begin.[14[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-13|]]]
[edit] Orbital Spacecraft
Blue Origin has also started work on developing systems for an Orbital Spacecraft. In 2010, under the Commercial Crew Development Program, NASA awarded money to Blue Origin, to develop a pusher abort escape system, as well as a composite pressure vessel. This was later revealed to be a part of a larger system, designed for a biconic capsule, that would be launched atop an Atlas V 402.[15[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-14|]]] On November 8, 2010, it was announced that Blue Origin had completed all milestones under its CCDev Space Act Agreement.[16[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-15|]]]In April 2011, Blue Origin received a commitment from NASA for US$22,000,000 of funding under the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 2 program. The NASA funds are intended to accelerate development of a manned orbital spacecraft (Space Vehicle) and launch escape technology which can be used for New Shepard and the Space Vehicle, with substantial additional development funding expected to be provided by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.The funds will also be used to accelerate the development and testing of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen engine for the Reusable Booster System which will be used in a later phase to launch the Space Vehicle to orbit (the first flights of the Space Vehicle will use the Atlas V rocket).[17[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin#cite_note-aw20110422-16|]]]
[edit] Test flights
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links